Chinese fury at Yves Saint-Laurent art sale

China's art historians have launched a fierce attack on a sale of relics from
the collection of Yves Saint-Laurent, claiming that the country's treasures
are being plundered for the second time.

The two controversial sculptures from the private art collection of the late Yves Saint-LaurentPhoto: CHRISTIE'S

By Richard Spencer in Beijing

6:26PM GMT 03 Nov 2008

Two pieces of work in particular from Saint-Laurent's collection have provoked Chinese anger: bronze animal heads from the "Zodiac Clock" at the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing.

All 12 heads disappeared during or after the sacking of the palace by French and British troops during the Second Opium War in 1860.

A number before now have come up at auction in the west and Hong Kong. All five of those have been bought by Chinese benefactors or a government art fund and returned to the country in the last eight years, but as their historical importance to China has become clear, the price has risen.

Saint-Laurent's pair - the rabbit and the rat - have had estimates of pounds 6-8 million each put on their value by Christie's, which has put them up for auction with much of the rest of the late designer's collection in Paris in February.

The fashion designer died in June, and his companion, Pierre Berge, is selling their substantial art collection to raise funds for HIV-Aids research.

Chinese state media have reported that the figures were offered to the government in a private sale for $20 million - more than £12 million - five years ago, but the price was turned down as too much.

Other officials indicated that the fund was no longer prepared to spend large amounts of government money on relics that in its view rightfully belonged to China.

Although the circumstances under which relics from the Summer Palace, including the zodiac heads, left the country have never been clear, officials say they were looted by French or British troops.

Popular opinion in China, where the Opium Wars are taught by history books to be the start of a century-long decline in national fortunes only revived by Communist victory in the civil war in 1949, is unequivocal.

The administration of the Summer Palace, now divided into a restored section and a garden of ruins including the site of the clock, called the sale "no different from robbery". State media have called the sale "war plunder".

"We respect the business rules of auction companies as well as the operating mechanism of arts markets," said Zong Tianliang, spokesman for the palace administration. "But it's definitely unacceptable to put plunder under the hammer."

A spokesman for Christie's in Paris said: "In view of the public nature of an auction, the return of these works to China is not guaranteed. However, Christie's supports repatriation of cultural relics to their home country and aids in the process where possible by sourcing and bringing works of art to the auction platform to give buyers a chance to bid for them.

"All of the objects in the sale, including the Fountainheads, have a clear and extensive history of ownership. This means that for each and every item in this collection there is a clear legal title, an issue that is always of greatest importance to Christie's.

"We strictly adhere to any and all local and international laws with respect to cultural property and national patrimony of art."

The whereabouts of the remaining five heads - the dragon, the snake, the sheep, the cock and the dog - remains unknown.